Budget Smart, Invest Wise

Many have heard of this savings challenge before, but if you haven’t or if your mind is a bit hazy let me remind you.

There are 52 weeks in a calendar year. At the end of each week you put in an extra dollar into a glass jar then you did the week prior. You start with a dollar in the jar at the end of week 1.

For example, and we’ll put the money in on Sunday’s for simplicity reasons. On Sunday, January 4, 2015, you put your first dollar into the jar. The following Sunday, January 11, 2015, you put $2 in the jar, you know have a total of $3. You continue this process every Sunday throughout the year. If you were to complete the 52 week challenge, then at the end of the year you would have saved up $1,378 in the jar. Quite astonishing really!

The whole point of this is not only to save up the money but to get your mind wrapped around living off one less dollar per week. If I said to you, “Hey Mike, you have to spend one less dollar this week. You think you can do it?” Mike, or you, would probably respond with a resounding “DUH”. Each week of the year you basically have to find out how to live on one less dollar than you did the previous week. When you break it down like that it seems mighty simple.

So give it a shot. Save up for a vacation at the end of the year, or maybe open a trading account. This challenge has a two-fold purpose. It helps you save money, and it also allows you to think about how to live on less.